Machines for dispensing tea beverages are known in the art. Typically these dispensing units are intended to supply an amount of ready-to-drink (i.e., single strength) tea beverage to a glass or cup which is filled with ice. The liquid which flows from the dispensing unit is typically at or close to room temperature, since in this manner the expense, both in terms of costs and space, of providing the unit with cooling capacity is eliminated.
Units which furnish a tea beverage as a result of combining soluble tea powder with water or as a result of brewing green or black tea leaves with heated water are both known in the art. As might be expected, beverages prepared from the use of fresh brewed tea extract are considered to be superior in quality to those prepared by merely reconstituting soluble (i.e., instant) tea powder with water. Where countertop space is at a premium, however, the use of the generally-smaller soluble tea beverage dispensers has been preferred. Food service establishments such as restaurants and diners typically have a shortage of countertop space.
An additional factor which has worked against the use of ice tea brewer-dispensers in food services operations is the fact that heretofore such units produced single-strength tea extracts and required either the presence of a large volume reservoir or the necessity to perform many separate brewing cycles. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the capacity of a brewer/dispenser, that is the number of servings of beverage that can be dispensed per brewing cycle, should be relatively large so as to reduce the number of brewing cycles which need to be performed. Each brewing cycle requires filling the brewing basket with tea leaves and then emptying the basket. In the case of countertop brewer/dispensers this is invariably a manual operation.